Month: November 2014

Jenny Jensen of NextJen Mobile is a friend of mine, so when she mentioned she was having trouble coming up with a logo for NextJen, I got to thinking about possibilities. An idea popped into my head pretty much fully-formed and, while I admit it’s a bit cliche, she liked it and ran with with it and I’m happy with it, too.

Sticking with a lot of recent design trends, the logo features an all-lowercase wordmark and a very flat color palette. The latter choice makes it very flexible, as it can be used with a light background or a dark one and is easily reproducible in print if need be.

The NextJen Mobile logo on a blue background.

The NextJen Mobile logo on a white background.

The word “mobile” appears in all-caps (though significantly smaller) under the “nextjen” text. The tittle on the J in “nextjen” is decorated to look like any of the symbols for radio waves or broadcasting, tying into the “mobile” part of the name. This is what I think is the cliche part of the logo, as NextJen doesn’t actually broadcast anything.

The NextJen Mobile icon logo on a blue background.

The NextJen Mobile icon logo on a white background.

Having completed a primary logo, I put together a smaller version that could be used as an icon, where just the “nj” abbreviation from the “nextjen” text appears, again including the decorated tittle.

With a logo for NextJen in place, I took a look at updating that of their flagship app, MIRide.

The original logo for the MIRide app.

The original logo was assembled from clip art. I kept the same basic idea, including the cyclist on the outline of the state of Michigan, but flattened everything out, applying the same colors and fonts as used in the NextJen logo for consistency.

The updated MIRide logo on a blue background.

The updated MIRide logo on a white background.

Because “MIRide” is somewhat difficult to read, I put the “MI” part in bold, outside the state outline, in the same color as the state. Then “ride” appears inside the state outline in the opposite color, in lowercase and standard font weight.

As with the NextJen logo, I made a stripped-down version for use as an icon. Apologies to the Upper Peninsula as it was cut to make it fit better, as the UP too often is.